


tu nombre

by nickofhearts



Series: love in the roses [3]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Alternate Universe - Mob, Alternate Universe - Serial Killers, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-23
Updated: 2017-02-23
Packaged: 2018-09-27 03:38:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9952625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nickofhearts/pseuds/nickofhearts
Summary: Noctis and Regis disagree about how much of a presence Ardyn should have in their lives.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [dreamingcicadas](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamingcicadas/gifts).



When Noctis was five, his father tried to have a talk with him about Uncle Ardyn. Ardyn had taken him out to the local park, pointing out the idiosyncrasies people wore like pretty pieces of clothing, if you knew how to look. The girl who lived alone, the man that wouldn't put up a fight, the couple that were so involved in each other they likely left their front door open to anyone who wanted entrance. It was dark when they'd gotten home, and Regis had been waiting for them in Noctis' room, looking angrier than Noctis had ever seen him.

Ardyn put him down. "Go wash up," he said, and Noctis looked between them, still half-asleep, but trailed slowly to the bathroom. 

He turned on the sink but the left the door open a crack, enough that he could hear what was being said. 

" _What do you think you're doing_ ," Regis asked. His fists were clenching and unclenching at his sides, like he was yearning to have a gun in his fingers, to _use_ it on Ardyn.

Ardyn shrugged, unconcerned. "I'm giving Noctis an _education,_ since you're not liable to."

"Get _out_ ," Regis told him. "Don't show your face here again." 

"As you wish," Ardyn agreed, but he slid a gaze towards the bathroom door where Noctis was watching, and he winked, quick as a flash. Noctis knew his father hadn't seen, or things might _really_ have gotten ugly, and he wondered what it meant that he was slightly disappointed that they hadn't.

-

Regis just looked tired when Noctis came out of the bathroom, face washed clean, teeth brushed. 

"Uncle Ardyn—" he started.

" _You_ 've killed people," Noctis told him. Noctis had seen the pictures, though no one had said as much to him. Ardyn had showed him.

"Ardyn kills people because he _enjoys_ it, Noctis. That's wrong, do you understand me?" He held Noctis' face in his hands, the most contact they'd had in a week. "It's at times necessary to take a life, but never for your own _pleasure_."

Noctis hadn't understood, not then. "At least Uncle Ardyn has _time for me_ ," he'd said to his father instead, climbing into bed and pulling the covers over his head.

He heard Regis turn the lights off before he left, but he didn't even try to argue the fact, or make any promises about things being different.

-

It was almost five years later when Regis took Noctis' phone out of his hand as he was typing on it, scrolling up through the messages. Regis' expression got darker the further back he went, and intstead of returning Noctis' phone to him, Regis put it in his pocket, his face a mask of stillness that meant he was _extremely_ angry. 

"Have you been texting your uncle?" Regis asked, like there was any doubt.

"You didn't say I couldn't talk to him," Noctis answered, shrugging. He picked at the food on his plate, though there were mostly only vegetables left. "Uncle Ardyn _tells_ me things. Unlike the rest of you."

" _Noctis,_ " his father said, not knowing how to carry on a conversation with his own son.

"I've been seeing him too. He picks me up at school sometimes." He watched the twitch of Regis' eye, the anger that came bubbling so close to the surface that Noctis could almost see it. "We go fishing," Noctis added. "Hunting sometimes. Last week Uncle Ardyn taught me how to clean a buck."

" _Go to your room_ ," Regis thundered, as if he couldn't bear to hear any more.

Noctis shrugged, going. Regis had told him to go to his room, not that he had to _stay_ there. He pulled out the phone Ardyn had given to him for emergencies and hit dial.

"Dad's _flipping out,"_ he said. "Can I come stay with you?"

"But of course," Ardyn answered immediately. "You know where the key is." There were the sounds of shots being fired, Ardyn chuckling in a low voice as he continued. "I'm presently a mite held up, but I'll be back before sundown."

"Alright," Noctis agreed. "Don't die," he added, because it always made Ardyn laugh. There wasn't anyone this side of the Atlantic that could hold a candle to his Uncle Ardyn.

Noctis quickly packed a bag and shimmied out of the window, keeping out of sight of the guards and cameras both. It wasn't so long ago that Ardyn had taught him that too; showing him a blueprint of the Lucis Caelum complex and telling him where all the blindspots were. It was something Ardyn should have brought to his father, but he'd brought it to Noctis instead. 

They _understood_ each other.

-

At fifteen, Noctis was beginning to understand why it was so easy for Ardyn to charm people into doing what he wanted. He'd always flirted shamelessly with the secretaries at school when he came to sign Noctis out of his classes, ostensiably because Noctis had a doctor's appointment, or a dentist's appointment, or, "I'm only in town for this week, I just never have any time to spend with my _darling_ nephew, would it be too much trouble for him to miss the rest of the afternoon?" and the secretaries giggled and said it was fine, they wouldn't tell. 

They signed Noctis out to Ardyn and no word of it ever got back to his father.

Noctis got up on his tiptoes and pressed a kiss to his Uncle Ardyn's mouth. It wasn't strange, though it perhaps should have been. Ardyn let him have his way for a minute, before he put a hand on Noctis' chest, shoved him back into a wall. Noctis' breath rushed out of him, and then Ardyn was kissing him for real, hard and stinging, biting at his lips.

" _Uncle_ Ardyn," Noctis gasped out when they broke apart.

Ardyn laughed. "My _dear_ Noctis," he said in answer.


End file.
